Dear Friends, today, my new blog website, “The Naked Troubadour”, goes live on the internet. I’ve owned the site for a couple of years but have been waiting for the right moment to develop it. That moment is now. I was keeping it as a “placeholder” until I could no more contain myself from going live with it. Quietly, in recent weeks, it’s been having its design established and a great deal of my material — almost 800 works — has already been uploaded to it.

Having “hermitted” myself, at the beginning of February, into a 200-year old “cave house” built on lava on the slopes of a dormant volcano on a semi-tropical island in the Atlantic Ocean, I have now also archived my writings into a “cavezine” where my creative volcano will rumble away in the background and, I hope, regularly erupt with some pyroclastic flow. A volcano has now become the primary symbol in my life — a fitting metaphor of the productive poet. Just to remind me of the transience of life and the power and unpredictability of nature, many of the walls in my cave house are made of lava too; and in the bathroom, there is a huge lump of lava sticking up from the floor! I am alone in this lava-cave — at the mercy of creativity and the ravages of nature. Perfect.

I’ve been heading in this direction for a very long time. It’s all part of a huge clean-out of my life, whereby I’m sweeping away anything which restricts, obstructs, degrades and sullies, or which doesn’t enhance my growth as a human being. This is a process which started a couple of decades ago but has only consciously begun to consolidate itself in the last couple of years or, with even more precision, the last couple of months, as the illusion of time is drilling its true nature into me. (In Earth terms, it’s short. Startlingly short. A little wisp of nothingness. We are here today and gone tomorrow).

The word “blog” is a diminutive of “web log”. To log myself on the web by archiving all my created material is precisely what I need at this point. For nearly eight years, I’ve been attempting to use Facebook as a blog. But overall it doesn’t properly serve my purpose anymore. Allow me to explain:

Firstly, the general climate on Facebook has changed a great deal in recent years so that it has become increasingly like Twitter — a superficial “soundbite” forum with skin-deep sensibility and sniping trolls galore who think they are God’s gift to commentary. Artistically, I don’t thrive in a shallow climate — which is why I’m not on Twitter or Instagram. I need elbow and shoulder room for my art, which is as far removed from soundbites as one can get. I need thoughtful expansiveness where new ideas can be rolled around the mind without a limit or a timeframe and with joyful curiosity.

Secondly, Facebook has in many ways become one vast lunatic asylum. A multitude of narcissistic characters continually pump out fluff pieces or new age quotes accompanied by their “selfies” (which is what they really want you to see, for even the fluff pieces are just a ploy to make you gaze at the images of themselves). Meanwhile, all the “liberal” types are continually griping, and sniping (and often downright lying) about Donald Trump or “Brexit” and extolling the virtues of Hilary Clinton and the EU while defending the corrupt mainstream media (which they refer to as “the free press”). Then there are a great many of the so-called “Truth Movement” people increasingly making outlandish claims and suppositions which they are proffering as “fact” on Facebook (which brings the whole basis of genuine conspiracy into disrepute). Their latest claim is that the carnage on Westminster Bridge last week was merely a theatrically staged event with manikins and fake blood, fake emergency services, etc. Or they brazenly claim that some event is full of satanic symbolism right down to the hands on a nearby clock or a number on a street sign or the number of people visible in a photo, although I could use the same dumb logic as them to show that my muesli packet is a manifestation of luciferian lunacy! Then one gets the continual barrage of false claims of cancer cures (easily disprovable) through some obscure concoction in a “health” journal run by some deluded fanatic. Or there are many who choose to deconstruct some long-established fact in order to claim that it’s a psyop or a form of mind-control (e.g. that the earth isn’t spherical, that no nukes were dropped on Japan, etc.). There certainly ARE psyops; there IS government fakery and mind-control and there are many deeply darkly satanic happenings. But there is no better way to discredit the outing of genuine psyops than to draw discerning people en masse into movements based on false claims or claims which cannot be proven either way. It is extremely undermining. Not only that; those who wage war wish their enemies to be fighting the wrong battles. That is what is happening here. The power-elite, in their war on the world, is very happy for you to be drawn into false skirmishes about red herrings — which is what they have managed to do, en masse. There is no “Truth Movement” anymore. It is finished. The “Truth Movement” is dead but staggering along on Facebook with a know-it-all expression on its face and a lot of vitriol towards anyone who exposes it. It has been infiltrated by shills who take in a great many gullible people. The whole scene has got out of hand. I just don’t need to be bombarded with this stuff anymore. It is madness and it jars my soul.

Facebook has become the perfect vehicle for the damaged person in denial who needs to surround herself with a ready-made entourage of skin-deep, sycophantic followers who are actually a hindrance to one’s growth in knowledge, wisdom and understanding. I have watched plainly disturbed characters with issues (mostly women, I must say) — using their physical attributes in selfies to draw huge followings of weak-minded minions (mostly slavering beta males) who hang on to their every word with breathless fanaticism. It’s almost like a disease coming on people. I have watched decent folks of intelligence turn into flattery-addicts who crave to receive “likes” and excruciatingly embarrassing fawning comments from their adulating followers, which they foolishly mistake for tokens of true friendship. (And I know of some who have found themselves in trouble in real life through soliciting such attention). It’s an addiction. The most superficial statement, soundbite, trite quotation or photograph will inexplicably draw hundreds of “likes” and exclamations of admiration and praise.

The unabated fury of many has become all too apparent on Facebook during the last year. The other day, I saw a singer-songwriter angrily demand on a Facebook update for someone to give her a good reason for the UK having left the EU, which she claimed had happened because of “blind people being led by liars and racists”. When a guy politely replied, giving some reasons, she said:

“I put the comment on as a thought to friends. I don’t expect to have friends that have drastically different views, but I thought maybe someone could enlighten me. You have not. Here is a real insult, just so you know…….fuck off.”

This is not some chav-yob on a sink estate; it’s an articulate thirty-something supposed artist, a musician who describes herself in her profile as “extremely liberal”. (Sidenote: I will shortly be publishing an article about the illiberal nature of modern liberalism). She is not by any means the only artist who I’ve observed descending into spraying anger and insults around on Facebook recently, for I have observed many. That is now the mentality of so many in social media today and it deeply disturbs me. This is the prevailing climate — one which doesn’t sit well with me at all. I can never be a part of that — either as a perpetrator of it, a participant or a recipient. I don’t need any of it in my life. It has nothing whatsoever to do with friendship.

Instead of friendship being an alliance of equals engaged in mutual development, love and respect — as it is supposed to be in real life — on Facebook it becomes warped into a “you scratch my back (i.e. compliment my updates) and I’ll scratch yours (i.e. compliment your updates)” fairy-tale mirror of fakery and vanity, in which others are merely tools in one’s bid for flattery and attention-seeking self-aggrandisement. This has been a real education. I’ve discovered that many “friends” on Fakebook will stop reading, “liking” and commenting on your updates if you haven’t been “liking” and commenting on theirs. That’s not friendship; it’s a blackmail business arrangement. If I comment on someone’s update, I have no expectations about that person doing the same for me. No one is obliged to like what I create or comment on it! I believe in unconditional likes! 😊 Yet, I recently received a message from a Facebook “friend” saying that he had removed himself from one of my groups (after having been “liking” and happily commenting there for months) because he had suddenly, to his chagrin, discovered that I hadn’t “liked” his Facebook page! I don’t “like” something out of a mutual sense of duty. I like something because I think it is good. If I don’t rate it highly, I won’t “like” it. What the fuck is the world coming to? (Rhetorical question. No need to respond). This is the travesty of friendship to which Facebook has been reduced.

Over the last several years on Facebook, I have seen it all, over and over again. Many people suddenly appear and just as suddenly go —often in strange ways, sometimes in a hail of bullets, if they didn’t like some little thing that I said. On one occasion, for example, to my great amusement, one of those people announced to me: “I’m blocking you, you stupid sheep!” Sometimes they go quietly with their tails between their legs over some trifle or misunderstanding. Many times, there have been people who were all over me one minute, extolling my “genius”, bla-bla, and then inexplicably disappearing or “blocking” me the next. I have watched all this with much bemusement. Whatever happened to the notions of fidelity or honour in friendship?

There are a LOT of fucked-up people out there — not to mention aggressive control-freaks — and the superficial, arbitrary, low-commitment relationship possibilities offered by social media are like a magnet to them. I can see that Facebook must be a marvellous boon for the average narcissistic woman who wants to gain admirers. But for the authentic, conscious woman it must be quite a challenge with so many slyly-predatory beta-guys out there smarming around her like a moth round a light bulb. In such an environment, “friends” are merely pawns in one’s life, to be used for one’s own ends, to boost one’s ego or to bring validation to a withered soul. In this way, Facebook makes a huge contribution to the general descent into the soulless dumbed-down mentality which we can see in education, the media, politics, the arts and so many other areas of life today. The promotion of dumbed-downness lies at the heart of the power-elite’s strategy in the “progressive stupefaction” of humanity. Therefore, Facebook is the perfect tool in the hands of that elite who not only keep tabs on everyone through the program but control their behaviour too, so that people can stride away from authenticity and integrity and stagger straight into compromise and collaboration with the dark side.

Of course, I’m not referring to everyone on Facebook. Not at all! There are a number of people who I can say that I’ve grown to love just through this cyberspace contact. (You know who you are). It has been a real pleasure to meet them and they have been a definite boon in my life. Yes, it is certainly possible to love people who you’ve never met. But they are very much in the minority. I could count them on my fingers and toes. Precious digits they are too.

Having said all this, the simple reality is that — apart from the hermit aspects of my cave-house and my retreat into the temple of a hermit-blog — I have needed an easily searchable resource centre, something that will live on when I am no more in this world, where I will have catalogued extensive samples of my work on the internet, so that the dedicated person can retrieve it and also subscribe to receive news of updates. When I put something exclusively on Facebook, it quickly disappears from view, becomes lost in the melee of triteness in the newsfeed and is not very retrievable for the general public. However, here on this blog one can easily trawl through the categories of poems, sonnets, articles, reflections, book excerpts, songs and videos. Or one can do a proper search for something using the dedicated search tool, or one can use the built-in calendar to click on specific days which are highlighted in red if there is an item logged on those days. There is even an archive tool where one can select a month and then see the works published during that month. Therefore, all my work on “The Naked Troubadour” is easily retrievable and instantly available, should anyone be interested.

Incidentally, not every work I create goes online. Far from it. In fact, not even a third of what I create goes online. But what I wish to make available is available. The idea is to present on this blog everything I’ve ever put on Facebook, referenced to the exact date on which it originally appeared there. That goes back to December 2009, which is more than seven years’ worth of material — almost 800 works.

I won’t be quitting Facebook or Messenger and I will still retain my groups and communicate there. But, generally, I will use this blog to put my material “out there” as a primary source, though often running it through Facebook or a group; but its principal location will be on “The Naked Troubadour”. I invite you to subscribe to TNT so that you will always be notified about any updates. You can easily do that by clicking on the blue button on the right-hand side of the page which says “Follow The Naked Troubadour”.

Finally, “The Naked Troubadour”, as my main resource centre, will run parallel to my official website at http://alan-morrison.com which, as a landing station, gives a good introductory overview of all my work in general.

I look forward to your subscriptions. If you wish to contact me on TNT, please go to the contact page and follow one of the recommendations. I would love to hear from you.

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The Naked Troubadour

Welcome to The Naked Troubadour! That’s me, Alan Morrison — a troubadour whose heart is open to the world for all to see — who writes from a place which is clear and free— who longs for a world in which every human being can be who they’re meant to be. Such a very short time we have here. Blink and it’s gone. It’s not important how long that we’re here but whether or not we live it to the full, according to the gifts we’ve been given.

On this blog-site, you will find many poems, sonnets, songs, articles and reflections which I’ve written — most of them in the last intense twenty years of my life. I hope you will find them as rewarding to read as I have found them to write. My whole heart and mind is here. Please don’t hesitate to contact me for any reason or none at all. Blessings to you, from The Naked Troubadour.